<img src="_images/lasair_logo_transparent.png" width=500>

# [Lasair: A UK Alert Stream Broker]({%lasairurl%})

[*Lasair*]({%lasairurl%}) is being developed by The University of Edinburgh, Queen\'s University Belfast,
and Oxford University with the ultimate goal of serving transient alerts from the 
future [Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)](https://www.lsst.org) to the 
astronomical community. *Lasair* (pronounced '*L-AH-s-uh-r*') means flame or 
flash in Scots and Irish gaelic. To prototype functionality needed to process transient 
event alerts from LSST, Lasair is currently processing and serving data from the 
public stream of the [Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF)](http://www.ztf.caltech.edu/), 
which is releasing a transient alert stream in a format similar to that 
envisaged for LSST. We thank ZTF for access to this valuable public data stream.

If you make use of [Lasair]({%lasairurl%}) in any of your work, please remember to cite our paper: [R.D.Williams et. al., 
Enabling science from the Rubin alert stream with Lasair](https://doi.org/10.1093/rasti/rzae024), 
RAS Techniques and Instruments, **3**,1, 362  (2024).

To start using Lasair to filter the deluge of alerts:
```eval_rst
.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 1
   :caption: Start

   quickstart
   videos
```

The following is about the astronomical science enabled by Lasair:
```eval_rst
.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 1
   :caption: About Lasair

   about
```
Please start here to discover the key ideas of Lasair:

```eval_rst
.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 1
   :caption: Concepts

   concepts/objects_sources
   concepts/lightcurve
   concepts/sky-context
   concepts/querying
   concepts/coding
   concepts/annotations
```

Lasair's core features are described in more detail here:

```eval_rst
.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 1
   :caption: Core Functions

   core_functions/sky-search
   core_functions/sherlock
   core_functions/make_filter
   core_functions/watchlists
   core_functions/watchmaps
   core_functions/client
   core_functions/rest-api
   core_functions/python-notebooks
   core_functions/alert-streams
   core_functions/make_annotator
```

```eval_rst
.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 1
   :caption: More Information

   more_info/account
   more_info/faqs
   more_info/contact
   more_info/status
   more_info/acknowledgements
```